A flawed study 50 years ago let us believe that foods high in fat were making us fat. And I know you’re still hanging onto this outdated belief – grabbing low-fat yogurt, still falling for fat-free promises and shelving that coconut oil as a sometime indulgence. You’ve been holding on too long and it’s time to look at why fat is actually good for you, and why “low-fat” doesn’t belong in your diet, EVER!

The Real Skinny on Fat

Fat is one of 3 essential MACRO-nutrients (in addition to carbohydrates and protein, meaning we NEED it), which the body must have to function properly. Here are just a few reasons fat is so essential in your diet:

In June of 2013, after 2 years of cooking on the side for family, friends and nutrition clients to supplement my nutrition consulting business, it became clear to me that while people WANTED to learn about nutrition, health, and how to cook and care for themselves, what they REALLYWANTED (and needed) was someone to do the cooking for them! I knew I needed to make a bold move and commit to running a meal delivery company full time. But how?

Thanks to my good friend Rebekka from Alchemy Pickles, I was introduced to a special place called The Depanneur. ‘The Dep’ as we call it, offers a health-inspected community kitchen and gives start-up food companies a supportive place to get started in the food industry. I decided to move my few pots and pans, many spices, beans and legumes and a handful of scribbled down recipes into The Depanneur and it’s been home to *Roots of Health Meal Delivery& ever since!

The Depanneur kitchen is an amazing place. There are a lot of interesting things happening in their café every day: drop-in dinners, supper clubs, food workshops and most recently a newcomer kitchen for Syrian refugees who, living in hotels, are given a space to make homemade meals for their families (and sell the extra to the public). There has been some great press about this recently (including the Washington Post and Globe and Mail), and the spotlight on this hub for interesting & diverse food experiences is well-deserved!

If March has come in like a lion, let’s cross our fingers that it goes out like a lamb. This winter has been a proper Canadian one, freezing, icy and bitter cold; we are sure to win our Canadian gold star after surviving this one! Although it has been a fairly sunny winter, it’s doubtful you have been out in the elements enough and have likely depleted your vitamin D stores.

Our level of nourishment and health greatly depend on the passage of food through our digestive tract. Without fibre (the indigestible portion of plant food) it is impossible for digestion to take place in a healthy way.

Typically, the foods we rely on most for high energy are the very foods that contribute to chronic low energy. The quicker we get a boost from a food, the faster it breaks down, leaving us with low blood sugar soon after consumption. Low blood sugar not only leaves us feeling tired, but often confused, emotional and irritable. When we feel this way we often reach for more sugar, caffeine or simple carbohydrates to pick us back up, thus perpetuating the cycle.

Break the cycle with these 5 simple but powerful tips:

#1.Breakfast is Best. This is the most important tip on the list, and although it sounds simple, for many people this is their biggest challenge. Eating a substantial breakfast is the best way to ensure sustained energy throughout the day, both for your body and your brain. It sets the tone for your metabolism and helps prevent cravings throughout the day.

As a nutritionist, the most challenging part of my job is simplifying nutrition to my clients. Clients expect me to present them with a mathematical equation to follow, a restrictive unpalatable meal plan removing eggs, grains and meat and costing them a fortune. Instead, what they find is a breakdown of the basics of health, food and cooking in a way that makes, not so common, sense.

Take one of my favorite recommendations: make your own soup stock. This simple, un-glitzy and cheap as chips suggestion may seem small and insignificant, but is one of the most incredible things you could do for you and your family’s health. The effects it will have will rival ANY over-priced packaged nutrition product, past, present or future. I’m serious! This is the best of the best, the cream of the crop.

Brown bag lunches are the healthiest option for your kids lunch, and Keep these 7 tips in mind to help you pack a school lunch with a healthy and creative punch.#1. Colour is key. Colour means nutrition (antioxidants, vitamins, phytonutrients) which help keep your child’s energy and immune system healthy, so keep your kid’s lunchbox colourful with all colours of the rainbow. Orange carrot slices, red tomatoes or pepper slices, green avocado on their sandwiches, blueberries on their yogurt or a skewer of pink strawberries. Natural colour only! Artificial colour can cause allergic reactions or behavioral … in some children.

Every year spring offers us the chance for a new beginning. A time to plant seeds
and see what grows. After a long, dreary and sometimes sluggish winter, spring is a
fabulous time to clean up parts of our lives, and our diets are no exception.

People are always asking me my thoughts on nutritional ‘detoxing’. It certainly is
a term you are hearing more of, and it makes me wonder how many people are using it and selling it as the next weight loss fad.

With popularity come a lot of misconceptions, so I’m here to clear up a few facts for you this spring. *See if you know which of these statements are true and which are true.

Many problems that send us to doctors, physiotherapists, dentists and dermatologists are some type of inflammation: Arthritis, tendonitis, gingivitis, dermatitis, colitis, neuritis, or any other ‘itis’ which signifies inflammation.

Inflammation is an immune response to injury, toxins, infections and allergy. 70% of our immune cells exist in the lining of our digestive system, so your immune system, and thus your inflammatory response is greatly affected by how the foods you eat interact with your gut.

It really irks me that when you do an online search for “healthy recipes”, you are given dozens of “low-calorie”, “low-fat” and “low carbohydrate” options, as if nutrition and health can be broken down into a mathematical formula we can all follow toward perfect health.

It’s like that same look I get when I tell people that I’m a nutritionist, and suddenly they are remembering and shamed by the hamburger they ate for lunch.